US air awards miles to Ecuador

We just got back from a two week retirement exploration (tire kicking) trip to Cuenca. We fell in love with it and hope to be able to retire to Ecuador in about 16 months if all goes well. If using US air miles for a *A partner award booking from the US to Ecuador, is Ecuador considered South America i.e. 60K miles or is it priced less as to Central America or northern South America as with most other airlines i.e. 35K miles? Sorry the awards chart does not spell this out, trying to decide which miles to bank and where to burn. We used BA miles (40K each) for this last trip. We have lots of AA miles that show lots of cheap 30/35K availability but think we should burn the US air miles first (but not at 60 K) Thanks, Mr and Mrs. Traveler

We just got back from a two week retirement exploration (tire kicking) trip to Cuenca. We fell in love with it and hope to be able to retire to Ecuador in about 16 months if all goes well. If using US air miles for a *A partner award booking from the US to Ecuador, is Ecuador considered South America i.e. 60K miles or is it priced less as to Central America or northern South America as with most other airlines i.e. 35K miles? Sorry the awards chart does not spell this out, trying to decide which miles to bank and where to burn. We used BA miles (40K each) for this last trip. We have lots of AA miles that show lots of cheap 30/35K availability but think we should burn the US air miles first (but not at 60 K) Thanks, Mr and Mrs. Traveler

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Unfortunately it is 60k in coach. Continental had a great option at 35k to northern south America but it went up to 40k. Us air does operate service to Rio and does have off peak savers for 35k but it's in May and Oct I believe. You could see if there is any star alliance service b/t rio and Quito. RT within South America is only 25k on us airways. How many miles do you have total?

South America is one region, Mexico & Central America is also one region. US does not split South America into two separate zones/regions. Ecuador most certainly is within the South American region so it is 60/100/125K for Y/C/F round trip to/from North America.

As Sky King points out, it's only 25K round trip within South America (30K for business, 40K for First if you can find the space) so you could do some inexpensive exploring in your retirement. Alternatively, save the US miles for a trip to Europe. It's 70K for Y between Europe and South America.

Unfortunately it is 60k in coach. Continental had a great option at 35k to northern south America but it went up to 40k. Us air does operate service to Rio and does have off peak savers for 35k but it's in May and Oct I believe. You could see if there is any star alliance service b/t rio and Quito. RT within South America is only 25k on us airways. How many miles do you have total?

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Thanks for the quick reply, we have about 160K us air miles between us. The 25 K awards within SA are good to know, Thanks

South America is one region, Mexico & Central America is also one region. US does not split South America into two separate zones/regions. Ecuador most certainly is within the South American region so it is 60/100/125K for Y/C/F round trip to/from North America.

As Sky King points out, it's only 25K round trip within South America (30K for business, 40K for First if you can find the space) so you could do some inexpensive exploring in your retirement. Alternatively, save the US miles for a trip to Europe. It's 70K for Y between Europe and South America.

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Been to Europe lots ( and going again in May- first time in C !) but I bet it will make a good change of place from SA. 60K is way to hi to Ecuador. Thanks

Maybe try for the easy/cheaper hits of the Grand Slam this year and add to your 160k. The cost of the miles is almost silly. I've got mine down to about 4/10 cpm. Going to use them for two tickets to Buenos Aires.

Maybe try for the easy/cheaper hits of the Grand Slam this year and add to your 160k. The cost of the miles is almost silly. I've got mine down to about 4/10 cpm. Going to use them for two tickets to Buenos Aires.

If you live near a gateway city and fly AA, you can actually travel to South America for 15,000 each way while ALSO tacking on a trip to Hawaii. I wrote about it here. Your gateway city is whichever city your flight from South America flies into. For most flights, that will be Miami, but there are some that fly into American's other hubs.

To answer Sky King, at present there's no * Alliance service from Rio de Janeiro (or GRU) to Quito. TAM flies to BOG and LIM, however.

However, the planned addition of Avianca and TACA to * A may remedy this and make the OP's retirement in Ecuador a little nicer. And the fate of the TAM-LAN coordination (and which alliance it will fall into) remains uncertain in the long-term.

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